Earth Day 2008

Earth Day started on April 22, 1970 by Gaylord Nelson and Dennis Hayes. It had the 1960s spirit of "teach-ins."Earth Day is 38 years old today. Started on April 22, 1970 by Gaylord Nelson and Dennis Hayes it had the 1960s spirit of "teach-ins." It was about environmental awareness and consciousness raising. Still, it was immediately the subject of green-washing. President Richard Nixon honoured it with an official proclamation and Coca Cola and car makers all announced they would take good care of the planet, once we bought everything they made. I was in Grade 10 and having launched my first fledgling campaign earlier that year -- petitions to stop the Amchitka underground nuclear tests – organizing Earth Day in my school seemed a logical thing to do. Thirty eight years later I spent my Earth Day talking to children from Primary to Grade 6 in Stellarton, Nova Scotia and then going to an Earth Day event in Antigonish where the Mayor spoke and planted a tree. The children knew all the right answers: Reduce, Reuse Recycle. Don’t drive to school. Walk or take a bike. Protect the trees so the birds have somewhere to live. Don’t litter. Do we unlearn the lessons we learn as children? The kids wanted to know, why don’t people all recycle? Why do people litter? Will the earth get better if we stop hurting it? That is the good news. If we ever get it right and stop the damage, the earth will get better. Meanwhile, I cannot help but feel for 38 years of building awareness, it is a shame that (as they say) when all is said and done, more was said than done.